I am
delighted this day to announce the launch of a project which
is dear to my heart and true to the founding spirit of Scoop
- Gaza.scoop.ps.

Scoop correspondent
Julie Webb-Pullman has been in Gaza for most of the past 12
months giving Scoop’s readers a very rare view inside a city
which is generally regarded as among the most dangerous
places in the planet.

Julie’s path to Gaza was a long
one and she spent most of the Arab spring in Jordan and
Egypt waiting patiently for an opportunity to get across
the Rafah crossing from Egypt to Gaza.

In February after
briefly returning home for the New Year she returned to Gaza
and began preparations for the launch of Gaza.Scoop.ps – the first phase of
what we hope in time will become a comprehensive English and
Arabic original news source - Scoop Palestine.

The
intention of this public interest media project is to shine
a light on the reality of living in a besieged city which is
continuously under attack from the air.

Scoop believes in the
power of information to transform lives. It believes in the
power of the internet to resolve conflict. And it believes
in the power of compelling ideas to propel themselves into
political consciousness if they are able to get exposure and
be debated. Scoop is, necessarily, a forum that is neither
censored through its own prejudices nor controlled by a
multinational media conglomerate.Therefore
Scoop's mission is: “To be an agent of positive
change.”

And this is what we hope
to be in Gaza.

Like Scoop.co.nz, Gaza.scoop.ps will combine original news
reporting, pictures and video - supervised by Julie
Webb-Pullman on the ground in Gaza - with aggregated
original source reports (press
releases/reports/statements/speeches/video and images) from
other organisations and individuals in Gaza. We will source
content from agencies of the Gaza Government, civil society
and NGOs with a presence in the city. Gaza.scoop.ps will also seek out ,
research and link to other news sources located in
Gaza.

Through this project we hope to help people
understand that this is not a city of 1.7 Million terrorists,
but rather a city of 1.7 Million ordinary people who wish dearly
to be allowed to live in peace.

By enabling the world to
see inside this city - in near real time in the English
Language - it is our intention to honour and celebrate the
humanity of the citizens of Gaza through their own
words.

This is not a commercial project. However we do
hope it will grow to be self-sustaining over time. This will
take time.

For this project to succeed Scoop will need
assistance from donors – people who, like us, believe this
project is worth a crack.

The initial fundraising budget
for the project will go entirely towards covering Julie
Webb-Pullman’s living costs in Gaza. Until now Julie has
self-financed her presence in Gaza. She has now reached the
end of her personal savings.

A modest minimum of around
$1000 USD is needed for this purpose.

The overhead of
publishing and maintaining the website will be carried by
the Scoop team based in our office in Wellington New Zealand
working with volunteers.

Our fundraising efforts via
advertising on the Scoop website will be assisted on the
ground in New Zealand by the Wellington Palestine Group. We
would welcome assistance in the fundraising for the this
project from anywhere in the world.

We would also be very
interested to hear any feedback you have on this new project
. To send us feedback, suggestions of sites we should link
to, and submissions of press releases related to Gaza for
publication please email
gaza@scoop.co.nz .

Gaza has been
under Israeli blockade since the first intifada in the early
1990’s. The blockade has been eased and squeezed ever
since.

Following the defeat by Hamas of the western-backed
Fatah government in democratic elections in 2006 - and the
subsequent withdrawal of foreign aid - the blockade
intensified. The bloody split between Fatah and Hamas in
2006, when a planned Fatah coup in Gaza was prevented and
the Hamas government retained control, saw this
intensification become a stranglehold.

Operation Cast
Lead, the brutal Israeli offensive of December 2008-January
2009, left Gaza decimated – infrastructure such as
electricity plants, water supplies, drainage and sewage
systems, roads, schools, and most government buildings were
destroyed along with thousands of homes, businesses, 1500
people died, and thousands more were injured.

The
situation following Operation Cast Lead has been dire –
Israel has refused to permit the entry of materials
essential for the reconstruction of homes and other
buildings. Essential medicines and medical equipment are not
allowed in. Schools are overcrowded and ill-equipped. People
are still living in tents, shacks, and other unsuitable
housing subject to flooding, cold, and without sanitary
facilities.

Palestinians and most foreigners have not
been permitted to freely enter or leave, whether to work,
study, for medical treatment, or merely to visit relatives
or business partners. Electricity is cut for up to 18 hours
a day, and recently, for 36 hours on end during the coldest
period of the year.

Throughout this period, Israel has
subjected the entrapped population to ongoing attacks from
air, sea and land.

Despite claims to the contrary, the
siege has not been materially eased by Israel since
Operation Cast Lead. While the revolution in Egypt has seen
increased entry and exit through the Rafah crossing, it is
restricted to women, and men under 18 or over 40 years of
age.

Gazans still depend for their survival on tunnels –
tunnels that enable some essentials to be brought into the
coastal enclave of more than one and half million people.

These
tunnels that are a death sentence for many of those building
and working them. Tunnels are regularly bombed by Israel, or
shut down by Egyptian authorities, even since the fall of
Mubarak.

Gazans depend for their survival on the goodwill
of the international community, in the form of humanitarian
aid convoys bringing essential medicines and suchlike
through the blockade.

Gazans depend for their survival on
the international community being aware of what is going on
in Gaza, such that they can do something about it, in the
name of justice and humanity.

Gazans depend for their
survival on the international media – a media noticeable
in Gaza primarily by its absence. One Al Jazeera journalist
and one PRESS TV correspondent are permanently stationed
inside this territory – the rest of the reportage from
Gaza live in the land of the occupier, crossing the border
at the Erez crossing usually after something has happened,
to then report on events from yesterday, the day before, or
even the week or month before.

Scoop.gaza.ps intends to be on the
ground, informing the world day in and day out, good news
and bad, of what is happening in Gaza, not through the lens
of jaded western journalists with an agenda, but through the
words of Gazans themselves.

I am currently in Gaza setting
up this project, to make this happen. But it can only happen
with your support. In the initial phases of this project the
costs will be relatively minimal thanks to the free hosting
and publication support being provided by
Scoop.co.nz.

However to survive and prosper this project
will need ongoing support.

So please donate. And if you know of anyone else who
ought to know about this project – then please let them
know also.

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

CONTACT ALASTAIR THOMPSON

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